1. Technical Field
This invention relates to a machine designed to repeatedly and accurately throw a football shaped object for catching practice, without the required assistance of a second person.
2. Description of Related Art
There have been numerous attempts to produce equipment capable of achieving repeatable, accurate football throws for use in catching practice. Designs by Dixon (3926170, 3951125) and Meyer (3977386) employed vertical and horizontal cantilever arms to simulate the arm motion of a quarterback. Centrifugal force and friction imparted the spinning effect required for stability during the ball flight. While these techniques may produce a throw, the equipment is large, bulky and can require significant effort to operate. Additionally, the ball spin that is required is imparted only indirectly as the ball rolls off of the carriage. This method is unlikely to produce the accuracy and consistency required for practical use. timing varies only to the degree that the equipment requires more time to generate higher pressures for longer throws. Another toy design uses a motor and a rotating wheel to feed and propel a ball, however the patent clearly states the intent is for the toy market (Wojtkiewicz, 6637422).
Other inventors have added to the mechanisms for automatically feeding of balls into existing equipment (Osojnak, 4723532; Griffith, 4596230) as well as remotely controlling the release of a ball (Shultz et al., 6679239). These inventions are mentioned only to demonstrate the ongoing interest in equipment designed for the purpose of throwing footballs.